10 May 2010: If They’ve Lost Fred Hiatt ….

If China really is “a moderating, useful influence” over North Korea, why did it roll out the red carpet for Kim Jong Il and reportedly offer him a $100 million bailout while it is the prime suspect in an action as dangerous and provocative as sinking the Cheonan? Suddenly, another bulb goes on at the Post:

Despite all the time spent in six-party talks in recent years, and all the discussion of China’s new role as a “responsible stakeholder” and a “strategic partner,” its main accomplishment has been to keep Kim Jong Il’s murderous regime sputtering along. It does this by sending North Korean refugees who make it across the Yalu River back to North Korea, often to be executed, which tends to discourage the outward flow that would otherwise take place. And in periods when the United States, South Korea and Japan restrict their aid to North Korea for political reasons, China fills the gap. The regime’s nuclear program has not been restrained; it is likely to face no serious consequences for its sinking of the Cheonan. [Fred Hiatt, Washington Post]

We don’t just have a North Korea problem, we have a China problem. If asking politely isn’t sufficient to induce responsible behavior from China, then we should be prepared to attach security consequences to China’s support for Kim Jong Il. Those begin with the United States helping the legitimate elected governments in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea to acquire nuclear weapons, and they also extend to fomenting civil unrest in North Korea, along China’s border, against China’s client, and in a way that will have a direct impact Chinese economic and security interests.

In contrast to other reports I’ve linked here, which reported that Kim Jong Il’s left limbs still showed some post-stroke impairment, the Times of London’s reporters thought The Little One looked healthy during his visit to Beijing.

The life of a Kim Jong Il paparazzo isn’t very exciting, says one reporter. Sure, but trade in your camera for a few Saggers and it would be worth waiting all year.

Cheonan Updates: By now, you’ve probably read that South Korean investigators have found traces of the high explosive RDX (which is not “gunpowder”) on the Cheonan‘s smokestack. It always astonishes me to see competent reporting at the Hankyoreh, but this article raises the significant point that the South Korean Marines use those waters as a firing range, and that South Korean shells also have aluminum fuses.

South Korea has buried nine fisherman, including two Indonesians, killed in an accident with a Cambodian freighter while searching for crew members of the Cheonan.

That’ll show ’em! South Korea is considering turning on the propaganda loudspeakers at the DMZ. A much better idea would be to broadcast a CDMA cell phone signal into North Korea and flood Dandong with cheap phones. Just let them talk to each other, and for good measure, set up a special “family reunion” switchboard in Seoul where callers in the North can get help finding their relatives in the South.

More on that lawsuit against North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank.

Open Radio carries two reports on the history of North Korea’s abduction racket. Like so much of what North Korea does, it’s hard to make rational sense of it.